Wondrous Words Wednesday...with Verlence!

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a great meme over at bermudaonion.net where we share new (to us) words that we have found in our reading that week!

This week, I was reading several things simultaneously, one of them being "Spring Fever" by P.G. Wodehouse. In "Spring Fever," our protagonist has a Cockney butler who used to be a burglar before he found religion.

The unusual word that I found in "Spring Fever" is 'verlence.'

Here is the only problem with using this word for WWW - I already know it...and so do you! (It just took me a few minutes to catch it...) I guarantee that you know it!

Here is the context:

"You betcher there's going to be verlence. I'll give you two seconds to change your mind."

Did you guess it yet?

This is the butler speaking, and he has that accent....

Would it help if I told you that he was being threatened?

With violence?

Yep, verlence is just violence! I have had fun with this book! On the same page, the butler says, "It's been years since I bust a pete."

Apparently, this refers to safe-cracking!